This AA weapon was used on every
major combatant ship of World War II. It was only capable of semi-automatic
firing, with each shell being individually loaded, which made it a rather
slow-firing weapon for anti-aircraft defense. For this reason, it
was replaced on many ships in the latter part of the war with the 3.7
cm KM42 and 3.7 cm KM43.

In addition to the normal train and
elevation axes, the mounting for this weapon had a third axis which stabilized
the the gun carriage when the ship rolled or pitched. This allowed
the gun to track an airplane without interference from the motion of the
ship. However, problems with this mounting led to its abandonment
in subsequent designs for 3.7 cm guns.

The 3.7 cm/L83 SK C/30U was designed
for use on U-boats and was used on a "wet-mount."

Note: Many references
show a ROF of 80 rounds per gun per minute (theoretical) and 40 rounds
per gun per minute (practical). I believe the above figure, taken
from "Naval Weapons of World War Two" to be more accurate.

3) Twin mounts were used by most warships
Torpedo Boat size and larger while the single mounts were used mainly by
S-boats and small auxiliary warships.

.

Data from"Naval Weapons of World War Two" by John
Campbell"German Warships 1815-1945" by Erich Gröner"German Destroyers of World War Two (2nd
Edition)" and "German Cruisers of World War Two" both by M.J. Whitley"Warship Pictorial #21: Kriegsmarine
Prinz Eugen" by Steve Wiper
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